1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method to program conflicts into a printing machine. In particular, the invention relates to a method to program user defined conflicts that would not otherwise be able to be identified as conflicts based on a priori information.
2. Description of Related Art
Modern printing systems offer a wide range of print media, marking and finishing options. Media can be paper of various sizes, color and surface properties as well as transparent media in various sizes, color tints and surface properties. Marking options include such variations as single or double sided printing, printing on a rotation angle, enlargement, reduction, multi-color or black, ink jet or laser, etc. Finishing options include various stapling options, other binding options, insertion of covers and tab sheets, etc.
Operators or users of printing systems enter the print job description into a job programming user interface, often a console of many popular forms. However, certain combinations of these operations are undesirable. For example, it makes no sense to specify staple binding for a single page print job. It usually makes no sense to print on both sides of a transparency. Such undesired operations in a job description are referred to as conflicts.
Known job programming user interfaces provide some level of conflict checking to avoid user dissatisfaction and prevent wasted materials and time. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,894 to Yoshida describes a system that automatically reduces the size of an oversized document image on a transmitting side to produce a modified image that will fit onto a selected size recording paper at a receiving side. U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,805 to Barrett describes a printing machine that displays options to a user when it is detected that the image to be printed is oversized for the capability of the printing machine (i.e., a size conflict). For example, a user might be given the option to reduce the image or crop (e.g., cut off) a portion of the image.
However, known machines do not permit customizing the checker with a user defined situation, that is not otherwise a conflict, to be regarded as a conflict by the printing machine's programming conflict checker. The ability for user defined situations to be regarded as a conflict is desirable in a number of instances. For example, when a technician sets the fuser temperature to optimize performance on thicker stocks, a print shop operator with multiple printers might want to force a conflict when a thinner stock is programmed. In this way, the user would move the job to another printing machine that prints thinner stock with good performance. When a print shop operator learns from experience that the performance of certain combinations (e.g., coated papers, inks, sizes, a particular printing device, etc.) is not sufficient to meet his customers expectations, the operator would like to enter the undesirable combination into the job programming user interface to be used by the printing machine's programming conflict checker to force a user defined conflict and prevent wasted materials and time.